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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27176293">Unparalleled Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semper_Sehun/pseuds/Semper_Sehun'>Semper_Sehun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EXO (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Halloween, Haunted Houses, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Mystery, Sehun is a paranormal photographer, Tags are incomplete to not spoil the story, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, this sounds a lot worse than it really is</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:16:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,048</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27176293</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semper_Sehun/pseuds/Semper_Sehun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sehun is a paranormal photographer that takes pictures of haunted spaces. On Halloween, he visits a supposedly haunted mansion and ends up taking a picture of a mysterious figure with a mildly disturbing, yet enticing smile. While attempting to find out who that figure is he gets pulled into something that is much bigger and a lot more dangerous than what he originally believed it to be.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>CASE–94's Midnight Tales</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unparalleled Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This piece was written for the first Midnight Tales round of the CASE–94 Fest for Oh Sehun.</p><p>To the prompter: I'M SO SORRY I DID NO INCLUDE THE PEACE SIGN PLS FORGIVE ME. However, I still hope you will enjoy this fic. It took me quite a lot of time to figure everything out and it's probably not at all what you expected it to be, but I hope you'll still enjoy it! Thank you for prompting such a wonderful idea, I hope I could do it at least a little justice!</p><p>To everyone else: The tags of the story are not fully representative of what is happening in it, but I don't want to take all the fun away by spoiling the tags. So, read and see for yourselves 👀 </p><p>Some more warnings: mentions of war, super short description of violence and death (not a major character)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The last rays of sunlight filtered through the stained glasses of the old building. It was that time of the day again, the time when you could taste the sun going down in the air. Everything around him sounded different, tasted different, <em>felt </em>different.</p><p>The sky was filled with clouds of bats, having awakened like a swarm of tiny vampires. The road to the old mansion had been bumpy, deep holes in the concrete where the weeds had fought their way through it. Back in the trunk of the car, his gear was being shaken, rolling around from the left to the right. He hoped that nothing would break, but it should all be safe. It was his most valued possession, it could not be ruined.</p><p>His eyes were trained on the dark, looming figure in front of him. The old mansion towered over the trees at the end of the street, looking inviting and intimidating at the same time. He’d read about it in a forum online. It was one of the forums he frequently visited and its sole purpose was to share and discuss places like these.</p><p><em> Lost places.</em> </p><p>Abandoned places, half-torn down places, <em> haunted </em> places. For approximately three years now, they’d been one of Sehun’s biggest interests – and probably the most nerve-wracking too.</p><p>Generally, Sehun considered himself to not be very fazed by visiting lost places. While he couldn’t exactly say that he hadn’t seen things that would have made others pee their pants (or worse), none of the things that he’d encountered had made him want to stop. The thing was, he hadn’t precisely <em> seen things </em>. All that he’d been met with had been sounds of footsteps on the attic of a church, the feeling of someone breathing against his neck as he walked through the hallways of an abandoned asylum or doors shutting without any evident cause after he entered the bedroom of a haunted house. But not once had he been able to capture what he was really looking for on his nightly trips during weekends or whenever he found the time: the image of an apparition.</p><p>It had been photography that had brought Sehun to the forums where he found his nightly destinations. When he’d been a little boy he’d already loved to take pictures of the world around him, capturing everything from bugs to toys and later sceneries or his friends. When he’d been around 17 he’d dived into macro photography for a while before he’d eventually decided to try something new. It had been one of his friends that had asked him to head to a haunted house one fateful Halloween eve a few nights back. The house a little bit outside the town had been the subject of several horror stories that had been told at school throughout his time there, but Sehun had never really felt the need to actively go there and walk around the house. His best friend Chanyeol had invited him to head there for Halloween that night though. In the end, Sehun had only agreed because Chanyeol had told him that his cute friend Baekhyun would be there and Sehun suddenly had been very interested. For some reason, he’d decided to take his camera with him that night and while they’d walked through the house (with Chanyeol’s cute friend indeed, Sehun had enjoyed that very much) he’d snapped a few shots of the building around him, mostly just for shits and giggles and to try out different camera settings.</p><p>Now – years later – Sehun no longer needed his best friend to motivate him to head to lost places. The eerie cabins and decaying dugouts he’d visited had begun to feel like an escape from reality, a short vacation from his daily life.</p><p>His hands moved through the bag with precision. Camera. Lenses. SD Card. Packing his bag for one of his trips had become a routine long ago, but Sehun still checked his bag once after getting into the car and then once again before he got out of it. It was unnecessary, but he couldn’t stop himself from doing it. When his fingers touched the familiar shape of the spare SD cardholder in the small pocket at the side of the bag, a small smile spread on his lips. It was time.</p><p>The air felt cold when he’d stepped out of the car, but as he walked the path up to the dark house, Sehun didn’t mind it too much. The days had started to become cooler, the heat of summer wearing off, but he liked it. He thrived in the colder season, in the darker part of the year. It fit the mood of his hobby well and Sehun was thankful for when the nights were long and the days shorter because that way, his time to capture something in the dark became longer.</p><p>With the back slung over his shoulder, the weight of it pressing into his flesh, Sehun wondered what this night would bring. It was Halloween, a little dramatic choice of a day to visit the mansion, maybe. But the people that followed his blog where he regularly posted his adventures and the pictures he took wanted this content. Halloween stood for creepy stories and scary, abandoned buildings. It was in October when his blog had the most traffic so Sehun had made sure to use every single weekend for his trips to lost places in his area. Today though, it was the night everyone had been waiting for and for Sehun, it was supposed to be his grand finale.</p><p>The sky beneath the old mansion had turned into a bloody red when Sehun had parked his car. Now, it was more of a warm purple, slowly dipping into a cold sea filled with sparkling dots. The night sky would look beautiful that night. It was a full moon, the second one in October already. It was a rather special occasion this year, something that did not happen too often. The fact that it happened in October and on Halloween at that had inflicted some heated discussions on the scene whether there was going to be more activity in the night of the 31st.</p><p>The old gate that led into the front yard squeaked when Sehun pushed it open. Somewhere in the trees, a bird rose into the sky, his journey through the leaves rustling along with his calls. Sehun felt the rust beneath his fingertips as he closed the gate behind himself again. When he looked up, his eyes landed on the gate of the heavy, black door. He’d read online that the place was supposedly locked but there was a window somewhere to the left that was broken with a few blocks of wood and stones piled underneath to climb inside. The forums had been very vague about it, just like they’d been with the exact location of the mansion, but Sehun had learned by now how to find the places he wanted to find. It hadn’t been easy, the entire scene was very careful not to disclose too much information, but Sehun had found his ways and he was good at it.</p><p>He took to the left, leaving the path that would have taken him to the front door. The grass under his shoes was long, weeds brushing against his ankle as he walked towards the windows on the left. He stopped for a moment, his hand moving back into his backpack to grab the flashlight. It was one of the most important tools of his nightly trips, maybe even as important as the camera itself. In abandoned houses, there were usually no light sources that still functioned and Sehun usually preferred seeing where he was walking, especially if the places he visited weren’t exactly tidy and all cleaned up.</p><p>The strobe of light of the flashlight hit the middle window on the left side of the house when Sehun turned it on. A pattern, much like a spiderweb, ran through the glass of the window. It looked pretty, but it wasn’t what Sehun was looking for. The light of the flashlight moved to the right, stopping at the next window. Sehun smiled.</p><p>There, underneath a broken window with no glass left inside anymore was a pile of stacked wood and stones, his entryway to the mansion. With quick steps, Sehun made it to the window, but he didn’t climb inside just yet. Instead, he pointed his flashlight at the window, illuminating the room behind it.</p><p>It seemed to be an old kitchen, a fireplace installed at the wall ahead of him. There were pots and pans out of iron hanging from the wall above it, old wooden pantries lining the walls. The floor looked dirty but it seemed like there were no glass shards, much to his surprise. Now that he knew that the room was safe, he stepped onto the pile and began to climb through the window. He had to put down the torch as he reached out to grab the frame to step through it. With a jump, Sehun landed in the kitchen, his hand immediately reaching back for the torch.</p><p>It was quiet in the room, only the sound of his breathing filling the air. Although the window was broken, it seemed like any sound from outside had drowned out the second he’d stepped into the building. The air felt different here, old. <em> Ancient. </em></p><p>He liked the smell of cellars and attics. Sehun enjoyed the taste of stale air in lonely places. This place tasted exquisite, like a fine wine, aged and rich. There it was, the itch in his fingers, the desire to turn on the camera. The night was still young, and Sehun could feel that this building was something special.</p><p>He put the torch aside again to reach for his camera bag. It took him a moment until he’d put the preferred lens for now on and hung the camera around his neck, the already expensive and yet priceless possession dangling in front of his chest.</p><p>Although the kitchen looked interesting, Sehun didn’t find it very suitable for his intentions. Outside, the purple sky was slowly turning dark blue and the first stars were beginning to compete against the moon for attention, but Sehun’s eyes were dedicated to the door at the other end of the room. It was slightly ajar, unhinged he realized when he stepped closer. It was a bit of a hassle to push it aside, the wood making an ugly noise as it scratched across the tiles of the floor.</p><p>Sehun’s eyes were looking at a hallway, but there was nothing inside. No doors, no windows, nothing. Even the walls were bare, clad in and somewhat ugly but at least vintage wallpaper in dark green. Upon further inspection, Sehun noticed some rectangular-shaped shadows on the walls and he realized that once, paintings or photographs must have hung there.</p><p>There was dust on the ground, small particles rising into the air with every step that Sehun took as he crossed the hallway. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, but no light came from it when Sehun flipped the switch next to the door. It didn’t surprise him, it probably would have been more surprising if the light had worked.</p><p>The door at the other end of the hallway was closed, but not locked. When Sehun pressed the handle, it swung open a lot more easily than the one he’d passed before that.</p><p>It was the large entrance hall Sehun stepped into. The door behind him fell shut and when he turned around, he realized that it had melted right into the wall in the form of a shelf. A hidden door, he thought. It was the first time he’d seen one and he wondered how to open it again. He reached out and started pulling out random books like he’d seen it in movies. When he reached for a very large exemplar titled “<em> The Beginning of our Universe and its Siblings”, </em>a small clicking sound filled the air and suddenly, the door swung open. He almost hadn’t expected this to work, but he felt excited about this. It was like he’d entered a movie set somehow, just that it seemed very much more real than the Warner Bro’s studios he’d visited in London when he’d been there on a trip with his parents in middle school.</p><p>Turning around again, Sehun’s eyes took in the entrance hall. It was a wide space without much furniture in it. Some of it was covered by white sheets of fabric that had turned grey from dust. The rest of the furniture he could see was a set of armchairs next to a large staircase and some sculptures that accompanied the large door. Besides that, everything else was covered up, however, that did not stop Sehun from looking. Walking over to one of the larger covered up objects, Sehun carefully tugged on the fabric until a shiny black surface was revealed. It belonged to a piano, old but otherwise seemingly intact. Sehun wondered when it had been played the last time. According to what he’d found online, the building had been abandoned for a few decades already, however, he was sure that several people had come here to explore it before.</p><p>Putting the fabric back in place, Sehun pointed the flashlight on the stairs before he moved the strobe through the room until it landed on another door at the opposite side of the hallway. His usual plan when entering places like these was either heading to specific rooms he’d heard to be very active regarding paranormal activities, otherwise he went to every single room starting from the lowest level and working up to the upper floors.</p><p>From what he’d gathered online, it was the spirits of the family that lived here frequently appearing during nights. Several individuals had told stories about their experiences of flashlights turning on and off and shadows appearing at the other side of the room both downstairs and upstairs. Sehun was hoping to catch one of those shadows to finally capture something better than some orbs (even though those had been extremely popular on his page already).</p><p>Although the stairs looked inviting – well, as inviting as a flight of stairs in an abandoned mansion on Halloween eve could look – Sehun decided to head to the door at the other side of the hall first. It was important to stick to his usual routine and he didn’t want to miss out on any rooms just by messing up the walking order. Before he entered the other room, it was time to set up his camera though. He had a few settings that he used as default, but he still needed to figure out what worked best for now. Outside, it had turned fully dark, the black sky becoming one with the dark walls of the mansion as Sehun stared out of a half-broken window. It was still eerily quiet, but that was not unusual. It would have been unusual if it had been the opposite, although Sehun had experienced wild animals living in abandoned buildings and making noises, especially in the attic. Usually, it was just birds or martens but once, Sehun had even spotted a fox in an old cabin in the woods. He’d snapped a picture of it back then and even today, that picture had remained as one of his favorites. Even though there was nothing paranormal about it, the atmosphere of the photograph had been so palpable that Sehun hadn’t been able to tear his eyes off it after he’d first looked at it on the viewfinder back then.</p><p>After taking a few test pictures, Sehun had settled on settings that were alright for now. It was time to set up small traps in the form of automated cameras now. While Sehun loved taking pictures by actively using his camera and pressing the button, with his hobby it was often helpful to place cameras somewhere and install a movement-detector. He’d saved up a lot of money to by them and eventually, he’d had enough to buy two of them. He’d connected them to two Go-Pro cams. Usually, Sehun set them up in the rooms that were reported to have the most activity but as he didn’t have much information this time, he was just going to place one downstairs and one upstairs. Looking around, he searched for a good spot for where to put the first one but then decided to check out the other rooms on the ground floor first.</p><p>The room behind the entrance hall was, in fact, another hallway that led him into rooms that ended up being not too interesting. One of them was entirely empty while the other one seemed like an office of some sort. Another one was a large bathroom and then a washing room, but none of them had given Sehun any vibes of paranormal things going on. Nonetheless, he’d snapped a few pictures, quickly checking them for any unusual images or apparitions. When he could not spot any, he decided to head back to the entrance hall to set up one of the movement detectors. They would not only trigger a camera but also would give a flashing signal to tell Sehun that something was going on. The problem was that mouses or sometimes even cockroaches or spiders set them off, so Sehun had a load of pictures of rats running across rooms by now instead of catching the body of a spirit. Still, it was worth a try and Sehun didn’t regret the purchase one bit. One day, they would prove to be helpful, he could feel it.</p><p>After setting up the trap, he decided to head upstairs. Usually, spirits seemed to remain in spaces that they were more emotionally connected with such as their bedrooms or the rooms they died in. He assumed that on the upper floor, he’d find the bedrooms of the family that used to live here so his chances were better to find something interesting than downstairs.</p><p>The steps of the stairs creaked under his weight as he walked. Where he’d stepped, his shoes left imprints on the dust, revealing some of the dark brown wood the stares were made of. At the top of the stairs, he had to skip one step that was broken in the middle, a plank of wood missing. He could look right through the hole, seeing the armchairs that were placed underneath the stairs.</p><p>Once he’d made it to the first floor, Sehun decided to head left first. Just like he’d expected, the rooms on the upper floor appeared more personal than the ones on the ground floor. The first room he entered appeared to be the master bedroom which he’d entered by passing through a rather nice bathroom. The bedroom looked like the owners had left just a few minutes ago, which surprised him. Compared to the ground floor, there were no sheets covering any of the furniture. When Sehun stepped closer to a drawer, he realized that there was jewelry lying on top of it. He would have expected something as valuable as jewelry to have been stolen by now, yet it still lied here as if the owner had just forgotten to store it away after taking it off.</p><p>Carefully picking up the ring, Sehun examined it. It was made of silver, the band slim and finely crafted, at least from what he could tell. Instead of a large rhinestone or gem, a labyrinth of lines shaped like a hexagon was shaped out of silver, a tiny diamond let in at the center of the labyrinth. He was amazed by how finely crafted the ring was, the silver gleaming in the shine of the flashlight. For a second, he felt the urge to slide it onto his finger but then put it down instead again. After inspecting the rest of the jewelry, Sehun moved on to look around the room. There were a few old photographs on the wall, showing a couple and their children. Sehun decided to set up the second motion detector in the room because if he left the door open when he went to the other room, the light signal would alarm him in case the camera was activated. He took his jacket off as he worked, putting it on the bed before continuing to work on setting up the motion detector. He just had to remember to grab it before leaving, but outside he'd probably notice at last when he stepped into the cold of the night.</p><p>There was another door in the bedroom besides the one he’d entered through. Sehun decided to head that way next, however, he soon realized that the door was locked. After shaking on the door and trying to open it again by pulling on the handle, he looked around to see whether he could see a key lying around somewhere. When he realized that that wasn’t the case, he pulled out his ‘definitely-not-burglary-kit”. Inside, he had a few tools that could be of help in cases like these. With a few pins and about a minute later, the door swung open and Sehun’s flashlight shone into a rather large walk-in closet.</p><p>Safe to say, he was a little disappointed at that. While he hadn’t expected a secret torture room or any of that sort, he had expected something that was still locked to this day – even with many people coming here to do exactly what he was doing. Usually, there were no locked doors in houses like these anymore, sometimes people did not only try to unlock them but actually unhinged them or broke them just to enter whatever was behind them. Therefore, a door that had still been locked was kinda off to him.</p><p>After examining the closet for a little longer, Sehun retreated from the room again and headed back to the hallway where he’d come up the stairs, obviously not without setting off the motion detector. Still, a little blinded by the flash, he almost walked past a wall filled with photographs on the other side of the stairs that he hadn’t noticed earlier when he’d come up. It seemed like it was a gallery of some sort that was supposed to show the entire family and a family tree too. His eyes naturally went to the family tree first, realizing that the first names written on it dated back to 1731. Sometimes, he was a little jealous that his family had never really put any effort into its history. He would love to know more about his ancestors, but he was already struggling to remember all the names of his cousins and aunts. Maybe it was not such a wonder they didn’t have a family, it seemed to run in the family to be bad at remembering such things. He made a mental note to ask his parents about it sometime though.</p><p>The most recent entries stemmed seemed to have been added in the birth year of the mansion owners’ children. Two dates were branching out from the last couple on the tree, one being 1954 and 1957. However, compared to all the other entries, there were no names added to the years. Sehun wondered what that meant. He doubted that someone would have just forgotten to do that after being so tedious on noting down every single relative for literally centuries.</p><p>Looking to the side, his eyes landed on the photographs. Upon further inspection, he realized that the ones at the top were actually painting which he just hadn’t paid attention to at first. After the mysterious lack of the most recent names though, Sehun was keener on finding the most recent photographs of the family though. When he found a picture of a family that looked like it was taken with the most advanced camera technology and didn’t look as bleached out yet, he frowned. Four bodies were depicted in the photograph, however, only three pairs of eyes looked back at him. The face of the son, Sehun assumed, was seemingly overexposed, making it look just like a white spot on the photograph while the rest of the family was easily identifiable. The young woman next to him, probably his sister, seemed to be about the age of Sehun right now so he assumed that those were the two siblings from the family tree but they were adults now.</p><p>It surprised Sehun that both the face and the name of the last son of the family line were missing. It was almost like he’d never existed, which was a sad thought, considering that everything else seemed to be so meticulously documented on this wall. It was a pity that the picture hadn’t turned out well, but Sehun wondered if it really looked like this from overexposure or if the reason was something entirely else. Just out of curiosity, he snapped pictures of the family tree and the photograph.</p><p>Sending the wall one last glance, Sehun headed towards the door that would probably lead him towards another bedroom. Before he could step inside though, something made him stop in his tracks.</p><p>Somewhere above his head, a noise was coming from the attic.</p><p>
  <em> Thump. </em>
</p><p>For a second, Sehun’s heart sped up. Looking behind himself, he made sure that there was nothing there. It was probably just an animal, maybe a bird, but it had sounded like something had fallen over somewhere above his head. It certainly hadn’t sounded like footsteps, which he wasn’t sure to be relieved or disappointed about.</p><p>Just when he decided to ignore the sound, it happened again, louder this time.</p><p>
  <em> Thump. </em>
</p><p>Sehun wasn’t sure what had created such a sound, if it were an animal it had to be a big one.</p><p>
  <em> Thump. </em>
</p><p>At this point, he couldn’t ignore it any longer. With his heart pounding in his chest, his flashlight in one hand and camera in the other, Sehun took a step back towards the direction the sound was coming from. His eyes flitted through the hallway before he raised the light of the flashlight to the ceiling, searching for an entryway to the attic. He couldn’t find one, so he decided to walk back to where the stairs were in the hopes to see a hatchway there.</p><p>The sounds had stopped after the third one, but he half expected to hear them again any second. If it was an animal, that was likely, however, maybe the animal had gotten scared by the noise and was now hiding and not moving. In case there was somebody up there, Sehun had pepper spray in his bag.</p><p>The beam of his flashlight almost missed the hatchway in the ceiling. Quickly adjusting the beam of the light, he suddenly felt nervous at the thought of really going up there. However, he quickly realized that he couldn’t reach the handle to the hatchway. Scanning the area, his eyes caught sight of a hook that was leaning in a corner. With quick steps, Sehun snatched the hook away and then used it to pull open the hatchway.</p><p>Pure darkness greeted him where it opened. A folded ladder came into view and Sehun reached out, pulling it out. Once it was all folded out, he took a deep breath before pointing the beam of the flashlight into the darkness.</p><p>Dust danced through the ray of light, dark timber faintly visible in the back. He couldn’t see anything that hinted at anything harmful so far so after a short moment of consideration, Sehun began climbing up.</p><p>He half expected something to attack his face the second it came through the hatchway. However, nothing happened even when Sehun was fully straightened up and standing in the attic, his flashlight just faintly trembling in his palm. It was rare that he got nervous, but he honestly wasn’t very keen on meeting a fox with rabies or a bird wanting to protest it’s nest. He didn’t even think it was anything too dangerous, but he just didn’t know and it was better to be safe than sorry.</p><p>Slowly, Sehun turned around on the spot in a full circle once, trying to light up every inch of the attic for a few seconds.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>There was absolutely nothing that hinted at anything alive up here besides maybe a few spiders and moths. In fact, there was barely anything stored up here either way. It was almost a little disappointing.</p><p>Just when Sehun was about to step back inside, the beam of his flashlight reflected against something. Turning a little to the right, Sehun raised his hand with the flashlight a little and held it in the general direction of where he’d just seen something. His other hand was on the camera, ready to capture something.</p><p>The beam of light hit the surface of a mirror, and Sehun exhaled. Taking a few steps in the direction of the mirror, he realized that it was a lot bigger than it had looked from just a few meters away.</p><p>It was a gorgeous mirror, ornaments decorating the frame that was painted in a pretty gold color that had begun to chip off in some areas. Right at the bottom of the mirror, Sehun noticed a pile of white fabric, much like the sheets that were used to cover the furniture downstairs, too. It seemed like somebody had recently removed the fabric from the mirror because there was little to no dust on the surface and it looked like it was freshly wiped down.</p><p>A weird feeling of being watched suddenly spread in Sehun’s chest and he turned his head back again, the flashlight pointing at the attic behind him but there was nothing there.</p><p>When he looked back into the mirror, Sehun stared at his reflection for a moment.</p><p>He had to chuckle at how he had actually looked a little freaked out for a moment. It was quite ironic. The sole reason for him visiting the mansion was to find something supernatural, yet he still felt a little freaked out at the prospect of actually encountering something. He hadn’t expected that to happen if he was really honest, but in the end, he was just human after all. Emotions, especially fear, would probably never cease to hit him in situations like these. He ran his fingers through his hair, watching his reflection do the same. It was then when Sehun decided to take a few pictures of the attic. Stepping away from the mirror, he tried to find the perfect angle to catch the atmosphere, however, he ended up walking up to the mirror again to take a few pictures of it a little bit from the side. That way, he had easily added a new perspective to the image just by photographing the mirror in the picture.</p><p>After he was satisfied with the first few shots, Sehun just randomly snapped a few pictures. At least one of them would probably look aesthetically pleasing even if there was seemingly nothing up here. In the end, it had probably been a bird or something just like he’d predicted it.</p><p>Once he’d climbed down the ladder again and closed the hatchway, Sehun finally made it to the bedroom he’d wanted to enter just before he’d heard the noises.</p><p>The bedroom seemed to have been a bedroom of the daughter. Here, most of the furniture was covered up by the sheets. Sehun didn’t spend too much time in the room as he didn’t feel like anything was going to happen there. Headed to the next room that was connected to this one, Sehun quickly figured that it was something like a library or office. Shelves were lined up on the walls, filled to the brim with books. Some had been pulled out and were strewn across the floor, much to Sehun’s distaste. He didn’t enjoy it when people disrespected the places they visited. Usually, Sehun never changed anything and whenever he accidentally broke something, he felt incredibly guilty. The places he went to were usually a mess already to begin with and although Sehun enjoyed the chaos, he did not feel the need to add to it at all.</p><p>Kneeling, Sehun picked up some of the books, wondering what kind of books they would have in their library. Most of them were novels and history books which weren’t exactly Sehun’s cup of tea. Straightening up, he decided to snap a few pictures before he continued his journey through the house.</p><p>It took him quite some time to enter every room and examine it. By the time he’d returned to the staircase, he’d snapped a few pictures but none of them had caught anything similar to an apparition. It was frustrating, especially because it seemed like the motion detectors hadn’t gone off either.</p><p>Sehun decided to give it one last go before he went home. Heading back into the bedroom where he’d set up the second camera and motion detector, his face scrunched up when the motion detector went off upon him stepping into its vicinity. After he’d slowly recovered from the flash of light, he sat down on the bed, putting his flashlight next to him.</p><p>“If there’s someone in here, can you show me a sign? How about you turn off that flashlight for me in case you’re here.” He said into the dark.</p><p>Silence met him, but Sehun waited. All of this was just a test of patience in the end and he’d learned to perfect it throughout the years. He was holding his camera in his hands, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.</p><p>But it didn’t seem to come.</p><p>“If someone’s in here, turn the flashlight off. Or make a sound. Can you make a sound?”</p><p>The only sound that reached his ears was the sound of his breathing and the wind outside. Somewhere in the distance, a bird sang in one of the trees. Inside, everything was silent.</p><p>After some more minutes of utter silence and no flickering or turning off of his flashlight, Sehun decided it was time to head home. To say that he was disappointed was a disappointment, but in the end, he figured he should have expected it. Just because others reported such events didn't mean they were a) true and b) that he would be lucky enough to experience them himself. If he was lucky, he at least had taken some nice pictures of the mansion to upload to his blog. And maybe, just maybe the movement detector cams picked up on something that he’d missed.</p><p>After packing up everything upstairs, Sehun headed back to the staircase. He stopped in front of the wall with the family tree again, giving it one last glance before he headed downstairs. Once again, the motion detector went off when he came close, but soon enough, he’d picked that up as well.</p><p>It took him a moment before he found the right book in the bookshelf again. He first pulled out a wrong book titled “The String Theory and Its Implications” because its back looked almost exactly like the one he was looking for. When he found the one to open the door, he was once again amazed when the door swung back and revealed the doorway to him. It was probably one of the coolest things about the house, Sehun mused and quickly snapped a quick picture of it before heading through it.</p><p>Once again, climbing through the window in the kitchen didn’t pose a threat. Sehun was still mindful not to cut himself on any remaining glass shards but got through it safely. The air of the night felt a lot cooler than when he’d entered earlier. It wasn’t even that late yet but Sehun still always felt surprised about how quickly time passed in places like these. Often, it felt like he didn’t even spend that much time in the respective rooms but then hours passed and he felt like he still hadn’t explored everything in a building like this.</p><p>He sent a glance back over his shoulder as he walked towards the path again in the hopes of catching a silhouette in one of the windows. Once he was back on the path, Sehun set up his camera again and snapped a few pictures, quickly looking through them to see if there was anything good. They looked aesthetically pleasing for sure, but once again – nothing. With a sigh, Sehun decided to call it a day now.</p><p>Another quarter of an hour passed until Sehun was seated in the driver’s seat of his car again. It was then when he checked his phone again for the first time, realizing that he had a few texts from Chanyeol, most of them along the lines of ‘<em> Are you still alive??????’ </em>.</p><p>He typed back a quick reply and then put on some music before starting the car. The engine sputtered and came to a halt. Sehun’s brows furrowed, a groan building up in his throat. Trying again, the engine did the same thing, this time sputtering for a little bit longer before it died again. “Oh come on,” Sehun muttered. “Not again.” His car wasn’t exactly the newest model and lately, he’d been experimenting quite a few issues with it. He’d meant to hit up a workshop but he’d simply hadn’t had time yet. But of course, now that he was in the middle of nowhere, his car was starting to act up again.</p><p>In the corner of the eye, he caught sight of a motion outside. It was just a shadow, barely visible in the darkness. He stared at the rearview mirror where he’d seen the movement and held his breath.</p><p>Suddenly, a bird flew up from the ground behind the car. Sehun let out a sigh. Once again, just an animal. Of course.</p><p>He turned the key again and for a second, Sehun thought the engine was going to die again. But then the engine began to purr and his face broke out into a smile. It was time to head home. Sehun sent the mansion in the distance that barely lifted itself off of the dark background one last glance and then shifted into reverse.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When Sehun pushed open the door to his apartment with Chanyeol, he could hear the sounds of the TV coming from the living room. The smell of dinner was wafting through the air and Sehun dearly hoped that the other had had some left-overs for him because he was positively starving.</p><p>Walking into the living room, Chanyeol looked up when he heard Sehun enter. His eyes lit up and he grinned at his friend.</p><p>“Any success tonight, Mr. Ghost Hunter?”</p><p>“I don’t just look for ghosts Chanyeol, I also accept demons, ghouls and other kinds of supernatural figures too. I don’t discriminate.” Sehun snorted and let himself fall into the couch next to his best friend.</p><p>“That didn’t answer my question though.”</p><p>“Not really… At least not actively, no. I heard some noises in the attic though but when I went to check on it, there wasn’t anything there. Fucking animals, man. Well, not fucking animals. You know what I mean.” Sehun snorted and Chanyeol guffawed.</p><p>“I see. Same old then, huh? One day you’ll find something, I’m sure.” He patted Sehun’s thigh supportively. “I made some dinner earlier. It’s Japchae, I think it turned out pretty well. I’m trying out recipes for the holidays later this year and Kyungsoo recommended this to me.”</p><p>“Oh, delicious. Let me get it then and if you want to, we can look through the pictures I took. I looked at most of them on the viewfinder already but I didn’t see the ones from the motion detector cams yet.”</p><p>“Sounds good man. Until then I will enjoy my episode of sailor moon before I indulge in your nightmare-inducing photography. I need my beauty sleep, you know?”</p><p>“Ah, I don’t think even beauty sleep can help you so don’t worry.” Sehun laughed and instinctively moved away when Chanyeol pretended to playfully punch him.</p><p>“Shut up, man. I made you food, be grateful.”</p><p>“I am grateful. But I’m also your best friend and know that you can take my love in the form of mocking you.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Chanyeol chuckled and waved him off as Sehun disappeared into the kitchen.</p><p> </p><p>With a deliciously smelling bowl of japchae and a bottle of beer in front of him, Sehun was huddled together with Chanyeol on the couch later, the SD card of his main camera plugged into the TV.</p><p>They skipped through the pictures as Sehun ate and occasionally commented on them for Chanyeol to understand what he was seeing.</p><p>They’d quickly reached the pictures Sehun had taken of the family tree and then moved on. The attic pictures were next. The first pictures were way too dark to see anything but then, past-Sehun from a few hours ago had managed to adjust the settings to take some nice pictures of the attic. They skipped through them until the first photograph of the mirror in the attic showed up.</p><p>“Damn, that’s like that mirror from Harry Potter. What was it called again? Mirror of the Erised?”</p><p>“Yeah, it did look pretty fancy. Sadly, I didn’t see anything desirable in it besides my own handsomeness.” Sehun chuckled but then choked on his beer.</p><p>On the screen, Chanyeol had skipped through some of the pictures until he’d stopped again all of a sudden.</p><p>Both of them were quiet for a second until Chanyeol let out a breath. “What the-“</p><p>Sehun’s heart started pounding in his chest. He wasn’t sure if his eyes were deceiving him or if this was some really fucked up joke of Chanyeol or something.</p><p>“I thought you didn’t see anything.” His best friend whispered next to him, his eyes comically wide as he stared at the screen.</p><p>“I didn’t see anything. This is- I didn’t see… him.”</p><p>On the screen, one of the pictures Sehun had taken of the mirror and the attic was showing. However, it was neither the mirror nor the attic in general that was making his heart almost beat out of his chest but instead the reflection of the man in the mirror that he’d caught in it.</p><p>An eerie, bright smile stretched over the man’s face. Streaks of hair hung deep into his eyes that shone from underneath his fringe, the irises unnaturally bright. There was blood at the corner of his mouth but it was nothing compared to the streaks of blood that covered his neck and seemingly entire upper body, tinting his what seemed to be mustard-colored suit top in a bloody, shiny shade of deep red. The bags under his eyes were worse than Baekhyun’s after two nights of gaming combined and Sehun was positive that this man was dead.</p><p>“That’s- that’s a fucking-“ Chanyeol started but then stopped, still too shocked by what he was seeing on the picture.</p><p>“-Ghost” Sehun finished for him. The figure was visible in the reflection of the mirror. The thing was, Sehun was certain that he would have seen him back then if he’d stood in that spot and he was a hundred percent sure that there had been nothing – no one – in the attic with him.</p><p>“Fuck- he looks… scary. And dead. Do you think he… wanted to harm you?” Chanyeol asked, looking awfully pale.</p><p>“I don’t know… if he’d wanted to… he had plenty of chances. I was in the building for hours all on my own. Fuck – why did he not show himself to me?”</p><p>Turning his head to Sehun, Chanyeol stared at him like Sehun had gone crazy.</p><p>“Are you for real? There’s this thing with the creepiest looking smile and blood covering his entire upper body and you are sad that you didn’t see it while you were there? Do you have a fucking deathwish?”</p><p>“As I said, if he’d wanted to harm me he’d had plenty of chances. Maybe he didn’t want me to see him. I even sat down in one of the rooms and asked for the spirits to interact with me.”</p><p>“Bro, I’m sorry to say it, but you’re fucking nuts.”</p><p>“It’s not weird okay? It’s a hobby.”</p><p>“A fucking creepy hobby.” Chanyeol snorted but then stared at the picture again. Sehun could see the goosebumps breaking out on his neck. “This is not a joke of you, right? Like, a prank? To scare me? It’s Halloween after all. Trick or treat and all that jazz…”</p><p>“Dude, I’m literally as surprised as you are. I didn’t see the picture even though I scrolled through some of the pics on my viewfinder back then. Fuck- Chanyeol, do you know what that means?”</p><p>“That there’s a creepy dude haunting that mansion?”</p><p>“No! Well, yes, that too, but more importantly, I took my first picture of a full apparition!” Sehun beamed. “This is big, Chanyeol! Really big.” He leaned back on the couch, letting out a happy noise of contentment. “The blog is going to go mental.”</p><p>“At least you’ve got your priorities set.” Chanyeol sighed, shaking his head. “Fuck, I don’t think I’m going to sleep tonight.”</p><p>“Oh, believe me, I’m not going to sleep tonight either,” Sehun replied, however, the reason for his lack of sleep would be entirely different from Chanyeol’s.</p><p> </p><p>They spent the next hour looking through the remaining pictures, searching for glimpses of the man. Much to Sehun’s disappointment, they didn’t find any more hints of him in the mass of pictures, but the one picture was enough for Sehun. Even after Chanyeol had excused himself to the bathroom to take a shower, Sehun couldn’t stop staring at it. He’d put it on the big screen again after they’d looked through all the other pictures.</p><p>Through the screen, the man was staring at him in the reflection of the mirror. Now that he looked at it, it almost seemed like he’d known exactly that Sehun was taking a picture of him at that moment. It looked like he was <em> smiling at him. </em></p><p>As intimidating as his appearance could seem, Sehun wasn’t very fazed by the man in the picture. If he’d truly wanted to harm him back then, he would have had enough chances to do so.</p><p>Even with all the splatters of blood and his ragged appearance, the man had something rather attractive about him. Maybe he was fucked up for thinking it, but Sehun couldn’t help but think that the man was handsome. Back when he had been alive still, he’d probably been very popular. Full lips, strong jaw and captivating, yet unnatural eyes. The picture was too dark to get a perfect look at him, but it was bright enough to see his features.</p><p>A billion theories had started flooding Sehun’s brain the second he’d truly realized what he was looking at. The most logical assumption was that the man was a previous inhabitant of the mansion. Naturally, his thoughts connected the missing name and pictures of the youngest son of the family with the man he was seeing in the picture. The mysterious lack of information about him hinted at something off, but he didn’t know what exactly. Judging by the amount of blood on him and his state of appearance, it probably wasn’t too far-fetched to assume that his death had had an unnatural cause. Murder? Suicide? Sehun wasn’t sure. He needed more information, but he didn’t know where to start looking.</p><p>Grabbing his laptop, he began googling. All information that was connected to the mansion wasn’t very helpful. There were some articles about the mansion being sold which contained some information about the family that used to live there, but nothing really seemed relevant or mentioned their son. The Kim family which used to live in the house had apparently owned a lot of lands back in the day which they had eventually sold off and moved away almost overnight one day. Admittedly, this sounded suspicious but there was no information in the articles about why exactly they’d wanted to leave so quickly.</p><p>Obviously, checking the old town archives was an option. But the earliest chance to do that was tomorrow and Sehun was definitely too impatient to wait that long. He wanted information on this and he wanted it now.</p><p>There was only one solution for that right now. Well, actually two, but he had no intention of going back to the mansion to search for more info right now. Instead, it was time to upload the picture to his blog.</p><p>Although he’d intended to prepare a perfect post which usually included background information on the place and whatever he’d photographed, desperate times called for desperate measure. If there was any chance to find out something about this case in the next few hours, it was by trusting in his blog readers and the forums he frequented.</p><p>Plugging the SD card into his laptop, Sehun pulled up the picture onto the screen of his laptop to look at it again. His heart pounded so fast as he prepared a quick blog post with a quick backstory of how the picture was taken and the events of his evening. Lastly, he added his request for others to hit him up in case they knew anything about a mysterious death in the mansion.</p><p>When he pressed the post button, Sehun’s fingers were shaking. Not from fear, but excitement. Maybe it was really a little fucked up that something that would creep out the majority of people made him so ecstatic, but this was what he’d been hoping for literal years. This was the picture that would bring him fame in the community, that would spread his name in forums and on blogs.</p><p>However, it wasn’t only that that made him feel excited. Just the fact that he’d finally photographed something supernatural, something that he’d wanted to find for years… it made him feel special. Not everyone was granted the opportunity to take a picture of spirit. It was a mixture of luck, skill, the spirit and maybe, a little bit of fate.</p><p>Sehun was staring at the screen of his laptop where his newly posted picture showed up on the main feed. Now it was time to wait and see what the community could do to help him figure out who he’d photographed.</p><p> </p><p>He should have expected it, but Sehun didn’t have to wait long at all until the first responses and reactions began coming in. While half of them called the picture fake and attempted to point out areas where photoshop mess-ups could be seen, the other half was actually in awe of the picture of the bloodied man with the eerie smile. He tried to ignore the ones that accused him of faking the picture and instead started responding to the ones that actually posted constructive comments. At some point, Chanyeol had returned from the bathroom only to say goodnight to him and tell him that he should better head to bed too, but there was no chance that Sehun was going to sleep now.</p><p>He did head to his room though, sitting down at his desk instead. Outside the window, in front of his desk, the lights of the city sparkled in the darkness and Sehun thought about how dark and quiet the mansion had been. Did ghosts feel lonely? Sometimes, he felt lonely even in a large city like this. With thousands of people around him, the anonymity the city brought sometimes felt overwhelming. Yet, if he wanted to see other faces, hear foreign voices, he just had to head outside and stroll through the streets. The ghost, however, seemed to be locked in the mansion, or why should he be there otherwise? It made him wonder if he missed some sort of interaction, yet he hadn’t interacted with Sehun when he’d asked for it back in the bedroom. It was confusing.</p><p>Hours went by and the responses to his picture kept piling up so much that it was hard for him to keep up. Apparently, it had been reposted into forums a couple of times already, making the rounds in threads of pictures with apparitions and similar things. People were beginning to believe him that the photograph wasn’t edited, and the community seemed ecstatic. Quite a few comments about the background of the family and the old mansion had kept coming up in the comments as well, but Sehun still wasn’t entirely satisfied with what he’d found yet.</p><p>Scrolling through the comments, Sehun’s eyes scanned the messages for relevant information.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> [nightANGELl87] I heard somewhere that the family moved away after a mysterious accident </em>
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  <em> [XxX_TransFormer_XxX] looks fake but okay </em>
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  <em> [Obsessed61] https://www.dummies.com/education/science/physics/string-theory-para... </em>
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  <em> [FoundElDorado] I remember reading something similar to what [NightAngel87] was saying. Apparently, there was an accident at the mansion in which the youngest son died. I can’t link anything rn cause I’m still searching for the forum thread where I originally read about it but it seems like the cause for the accident was never cleared up. There were no investigations since the family was very influential, at least that’s what people gossiped about. They moved away quickly after the incident and never returned to the mansion again after selling all their land. </em>
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  <em> [LuckyMonster9] damn, the guy looks creepy. But hot too. Am I weird? </em>
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  <em> [SweetLiar] www.night-urbex.com/region/SK/Kim-Mansion/acc-... I think this is the thread [FoundElDorado] was talking about. However, in the thread, you can also find theories on how the accident wasn’t one at all. Some think that the son was killed by the family to keep a secret of illegal business that the son no longer wanted to keep a secret because of moral aspects. But honestly, just look at the forum and check it out yourself. Great shot, man. Haven’t seen a picture of an apparition this great before! </em>
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</p><p>While there were certainly a few comments that could be ignored because of lack of sense or repetitiveness, especially the last comment by [SweetLiar] had caught his attention. Clicking on the link, Sehun was taken to a thread in a forum discussing the happenings at the Kim mansion in 1981 when the son had supposedly died. Much to his surprise, there was actually a copy of the guy’s obituary in the local newspaper. For the first time, Sehun had a name to connect with the face he’d seen.</p><p>
  <em> Kim Jongin. </em>
</p><p>He’d been 24 when he’d died, just like Sehun was right now. It was a crazy thought, being at the exact same age as the spirit when he’d died.</p><p>Sehun continued reading, his eyes scanning over the words rapidly. Skipping a few comments that seemed to contain information that was speculative or redundant, Sehun eventually found more on the theories of how and why he’d died. Apparently, the family had been caught up in illegal business including money laundering which they covered by their land leasing. The son had found out about the illegal activities and had confronted his parents about it, threatening them to reveal what they were doing in case they didn’t stop. To prevent that, it was said that the son was then involved in an accident that was actual planned that way which he did not survive. All of this information was based on gossip of the town it seemed, so Sehun wasn’t exactly sure how much of it was believable. Yet, it seemed to be the most reasonable explanation for now. It also explained why there was no information about the son in the house anymore, it seemed like the family had tried to erase his entire existence. If this wasn’t a reason to haunt a mansion, Sehun didn’t know what was.</p><p>By the time Sehun decided it was time to call it a day, it was slowly starting to get light outside again already. Pushing himself back from his desk, Sehun’s eyes flitted to the window behind his laptop screen for a moment and his heart started pounding in his chest, mouth going dry.</p><p>For the blink of an eye, the man had been there again. Standing behind him, looking at him. He looked a little less bloody now, but his eyes were still rimmed by redness, plump lips bloodless.</p><p>Sehun shot around, his eyes taking in the room behind him.</p><p>There was nobody. He was alone, not a single hint of anything being there with him. Slowly, he turned back and looked at the window, but the reflection was gone.</p><p>Maybe he’d started seeing things. He’d been thinking about the guy, Kim Jongin apparently, for the past hours while he’d sat on his desk. He hadn’t slept in forever and he probably needed to get some liquids into his system. It was highly likely that he was just seeing things that weren’t even there. A simple hallucination, nothing more.</p><p>Standing up, Sehun stretched. He looked around the room again, unable to shake off a weird feeling. What if it hadn’t been his imagination? Had the ghost followed him home? But that didn’t make sense… he had assumed that it couldn’t leave the mansion… his head was beginning to hurt and Sehun decided that it was time to sleep. After quickly brushing his teeth and washing his face, Sehun slipped into the bedsheets. Although there were still too many thoughts coursing through his mind, the exhaustion of his body took over and he fell asleep almost instantly.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It was way past midday when Sehun woke up. Memories of the previous night came flashing back almost instantly and Sehun reached for his phone to check the feedback on his blogpost. He almost dropped the phone when he realized how many new comments had come in while he’d been asleep and it took him a good half an hour to superficially scan them for any relevant information. However, it seemed like there wasn’t much new information about the spirit and who it possibly belonged to.</p><p>By the time he got up, Sehun almost got scared by his reflection in the window. Reminded of the short moment of shock last night when he’d thought he’d seen the reflection of the man from the picture again, Sehun wondered if it had been a hallucination or if it had been real.</p><p>Weirdly enough, he’d once again only encountered the spirit through a reflection. Did that mean that he… lived in reflections? Or that he was only visible if you didn’t look at them directly. That was kind of like a… reverse-vampire. Sehun reminded himself to check supernatural beings that possessed these characteristics, hoping that maybe this would help him pin things down.</p><p>After a much-needed shower and a quick lunch consisting of cup ramen and a handful of sweets, Sehun grabbed a cup of coffee and got comfortable in front of his computer again to take a proper look at all the comments again. Maybe he’d missed out on some relevant information earlier.</p><p>However, as it turned out, all the comments that intended to help him find out who he’d photographed seemed to point at Kim Jongin and the mysterious circumstances discussed in the forum he’d been linked to early on. He decided to write a follow-up post with some more pictures of the mansion after taking a short break.</p><p>To clear his mind and catch some fresh air, he decided to head out to take a quick stroll through the park and grab take-out on the way back. There was a takeaway offering delicious fried chicken just around the corner and Sehun was in the mood for some delicious soul food. Glancing out of the window, Sehun could tell already that it was cold outside today. The sky had been covered by clouds all day and around 5, it had even rained a little. Searching for his keys that he must have put back into his pockets last night, Sehun reached into the pocket of his jacket. Pulling out the keys, something fell to the ground. It must have had gotten stuck in the keys as he’d pulled them out of the pocket. Bending down, Sehun frowned at the small object that gleamed in the light of his bedroom lamp.</p><p>It was a ring.</p><p>Sehun’s eyes grew wide when he realized that he’d seen it before. It was the ring from the bedroom of the mansion. But how did it end up in his pocket with his keys?</p><p>Thinking back, Sehun couldn’t actively remember putting the ring in his pocket. All he could recall was wanting to put it back on the drawer where the other jewelry had been. But had he put It back? Suddenly, Sehun wasn’t so sure anymore. He’d been so convinced that he’d put it back. He’d <em> wanted </em> to put it back. Maybe he’d been so out of his mind that he’d accidentally pocketed the ring, it was the only option that seemed plausible. It was slightly scary that he’d been so mindless back then apparently.</p><p>Staring at the ring, Sehun examined it in the light of the lamp at his desk. It looked as pretty as it had back at the mansion, beautifully crafted and captivating. Sehun wondered if the maze on it had any particular meaning or if it was just there for decorative purposes. Turning it in his fingers, he noticed something engraved on the inside. It was a single letter.</p><p>
  <em> J. </em>
</p><p>J. like Jongin. Like Kim Jongin. Maybe it had belonged to the dead son of the family? It was possible that someone else in the family had a name starting with J too. Or maybe it stood for something else entirely. Nonetheless, Sehun felt a little uncomfortable having the ring here now. It felt like he’d stolen from them although it had not been intentional at all, but his bad conscience was already beginning to eat him up. Still, he slid the ring onto his finger, surprised by how it fit like a glove. It almost seemed like it was made for him, sitting neatly at the base of his ring finger.</p><p>Quickly, Sehun pulled it off again, a shudder running down the spine. He should not be wearing it, even if it was here now. He should take it back instead, but he didn’t really have time to drive there anytime soon, having a billion other trips planned for his blog already.</p><p>He decided to put it aside for now and placed the ring on the desk, giving it one last glance before he headed outside to grab some take-out.</p><p>When he came back later after a walk with a bag filled with delicious dinner for him and Chanyeol, he’d almost forgotten about the ring again. Only when he returned to his bedroom after having a chat with Chanyeol during dinner, he spotted the silver band on his desk, taunting him as it gleamed in the soft light of the lamp. Sehun stared at it thoughtfully for a while before he picked it up again, turning it around in his hands. Heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth, Sehun decided to take it with him to examine it in the bright light of the bathroom. With the toothbrush in his mouth, Sehun decided to slide the ring on the finger again. He hadn’t found any more engravings on it but he had just felt the need to put it on again. Now that it was on his ring finger again, Sehun held up his hand high, examining it under the bright light. The diamond at the center of the maze looked stunning and Sehun wondered if it was an expensive one.</p><p>His eyes caught sight of something in the mirror behind his hand. When he glanced at it, he almost choked on his toothbrush. Twirling around, Sehun was once again faced with an empty bathroom. However, what he’d seen in the reflection of the mirror just now had shown that he hadn’t been alone at all.</p><p>The man, a soft smile on his lips, had stood behind him, holding up a hand with a ring on his finger that looked like a carbon copy of Sehun’s ring. By the time he’d really registered what he was seeing, the apparition had vanished again already. With a pounding heart and sweat forming on his forehead, Sehun stared at the ring on his finger, wondering if all of this was connected to this ring.</p><p>If the ring really belonged to the ghost, Kim Jongin he assumed, maybe he was angry at Sehun for accidentally having taken it? Was that the reason why he had followed him back home?</p><p>But thinking about it, the spirit had not looked angry. In the harsh light of the bathroom lamp, the redness under his eyes had looked even more sickly. His skin had had a healthy tone of honey though, his plump lips almost bloodless though. There was less blood on him now, and Sehun wondered what that meant.</p><p>Instead of looking angry, Sehun couldn’t deny that the man had almost looked sad. Although his lips had been smiling, his eyes had conveyed something that went deeper. There had been a pain in them, something that had been able to pierce his soul and hurt in just a split second, that spoke of sadness so deep that it could not be hidden, even with a smile on his lips. Sehun wondered if it had anything to do with his death. If his parents murdered him over wanting to protect their family business, he’d be more than deeply hurt too. It was certainly a good enough reason to become a ghost and haunt the house where it had happened.</p><p>If the man, Jongin, was searching for his eternal peace, a stranger that came and stole his ring probably didn’t add to his happiness. Looking at the ring and then the mirror again, Sehun made sure that the figure wasn’t there anymore. Once again, he’d only seen him through a reflection. It seemed like he was trapped in them, at least from what he had observed.</p><p>There was no doubt now that he had to take the ring back. Although he’d already planned to do that anyway, it hadn’t been his top priority. Now, however, he was starting to think that he did it better later than sooner. Although the spirit apparently neither had the tools nor intentions to harm him, it didn’t sit well with Sehun any to keep the ring any longer. If the spirit was following him, he would probably not be able to feel at ease, so he needed to make sure that he gave him the ring back so he could leave him alone. In the process, maybe he could tell the ghost that he’d found out about his story so that he maybe finally felt at peace. Even before finishing brushing his teeth, Sehun took the ring off again, putting it next to the sink for the remainder of the time he spent in the bathroom. He no longer felt comfortable having it on him, but he couldn’t help checking every few seconds if it was still there. But compared to its owner, the ring never vanished, just sitting there on the sink and taunting him with its beautiful gleam.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The following day, Sehun called in sick for work. Originally, he’d been supposed to work a shift at the café he was jobbing at, but he’d been awake half of the night to find out more about the mysterious mansion and its history. However, besides finding more threads with roughly the same context he’d been linked under his blog prior to this, there wasn’t anything new that Sehun had been able to make out. A visit to the city archives would have probably the only chance to get some more input on it, but he didn’t want to wait that long anymore. So with the ring in his pocket and his camera back in his trunk, Sehun was headed on his way to the mansion once again instead of work.</p><p>Compared to its impressive appearance at dawn and in the night, the mansion looked mostly run-down now that he was looking at it in brought daylight. The originally white paint was either discolored or chipped off in large areas and it looked more like random spots of white paint instead of a uniformly painted wall. There was ivy growing on the left side of the building, some of it having found its way through the broken windows. Sehun had left the gate open when he’d left at night so when he now stepped through it, he didn’t have to fumble with the heavily rusted handle. The door that had looked so impressive at night now looked like it would splitter and tear at the slightest touch. The wood looked soaked with water and mold had begun to grow where the varnish was no longer protecting it. It was evident that the building had not been cared for in decades, but during the day, it had a lot less charm than at night.</p><p>Yet, Sehun felt a lot more at ease that it was bright outside and not pitch black. Like that, the chances that he would catch the man’s reflection again were a lot higher than just having a very limited field of vision while having to rely on a flashlight.</p><p>Getting into the mansion was even easier than last time. In daylight, finding the window and climbing through it was an easy task. After landing in the kitchen, Sehun didn’t waste much time there and instead headed to the entrance hall right away. He’d once again brought his motion detectors and cameras so he set one up in the hallway just like he’d had the first time he’d been there, however, he didn’t expect them to go off since the spirit seemed to move through reflections. Yet, he wanted to make sure he captured everything remotely interesting. Making his way upstairs, Sehun minded the broken step and then stopped in front of the hallway with the family tree again. His eyes halted at the empty spot next to the year 1957.</p><p>“This must have been tough for you, huh?” Sehun whispered quietly before he continued to walk into the bedroom he’d assumed to the bedroom of the parents. Stepping in front of the drawer, Sehun reached into his pocket. His fingers brushed against the warm metal of the ring that he’d stored in the pocket of his jacket. Pulling it out, Sehun examined it one last time, his eyes getting stuck on the engraved <em> J. </em> again.</p><p>“Here you go,” Sehun mumbled, putting the ring back onto the drawer. “I never meant to take it. I hope I didn’t anger you, I didn’t-“</p><p>His words got cut off by a rumble from somewhere above his head. Sehun’s palms were starting to feel sweaty as he stood still, waiting for the noise to happen again.</p><p>He didn’t have to wait for too long.</p><p>Another sound came from the attic, this time it sounded almost like… steps. Sehun swallowed, pulling out his phone. He sent Chanyeol a quick text with his location, telling him that he was back at the mansion to put something back he’d accidentally taken. He should check on him if he didn’t call him in half an hour at the latest.</p><p>After putting his phone back into the pocket of his pants, Sehun looked up at the ceiling. The noises had stopped, but Sehun had already made a decision. With his camera hung around his neck, he headed back to the staircase and opened the hatchway to the attic. Like before, pitch-black darkness greeted him from above. There was no light coming from the attic, but Sehun had his flashlight in his hands. Maybe it was stupid of him to climb up there again, but curiosity had gotten the better of him once again. Reaching out, Sehun held his arm up into the attic to light up the area around the hatchway before he continued climbing any higher. From what he could see, there was nothing dangerous that he could see so he continued his way up until he was standing on the wooden planks of the attic floor. The beam of the flashlight wandered across the entire attic as Sehun tried to light up all corners to make sure he didn’t miss anything. When he was sure there wasn’t anything lurking in the corners, he felt a little more relieved again already. Nonetheless, his heart was still pounding as he took a few steps away from the hatchway.</p><p>It could have been an animal, Sehun thought. Even the noises that had sounded like footsteps could be traced back to a reasonable phenomenon probably, but with all the things that had happened, he was being careful.</p><p>He stopped walking when his eyes fell on the mirror, or rather what he could see of him. Instantly, adrenaline spiked again and his steps haltered for a moment.</p><p>Somebody had to have been in the attic. Someone had to have been here. Maybe, someone <em> was </em>here.</p><p>Sehun’s eyes shot around, trying to check his surroundings again. His hand was on his phone in his pocket, the other one holding the flashlight still.</p><p>Somebody had hung one of the white sheets used to cover furniture over the mirror. When Sehun had left the attic two nights ago, the mirror had not been covered yet. Now, there was no reflection, he only was able to identify it as the mirror by its location and size. His heart and mind were having a race as he stepped closer and closer. His fingers were shaking as he reached out, fingertips brushing against the rough fabric of the white sheet. For a second, he hesitated, not sure why though. There was not a single noise, utter silence surrounded him. Sehun took a deep breath, and then pulled the sheet away.</p><p> </p><p>Bright eyes met him in the darkness. His own reflection was looking at him in the mirror, but it wasn’t what had made Sehun’s breath hitch. The man was back, and he was looking at him.</p><p>A second passed.</p><p>Two seconds passed.</p><p>He was still there. He did not disappear like the other times. There was a smile on his face again, but the hint of sadness in his eyes had disappeared. There was something else in them now, something like… <em> triumph. </em></p><p>Slowly, Sehun turned.</p><p>And for the first time, he did not see the man in a reflection.</p><p>There, right in front of him stood the man he’d seen in the photograph, the man that he’d seen in the reflection of his window, in his mirror. His lips parted, but no words escaped him, everything that Sehun could have said having left his brain.</p><p>Instead, the man spoke up, and his words sent a shudder down Sehun’s spine. In a deep, gentle voice, he spoke to Sehun as he took a step closer to cup Sehun’s cheek. He was too in shock to move away, instead continuing to stare into the man’s icy blue eyes. His hand was warm, oh so warm – so <em> alive </em>.</p><p>
  <em> “Finally, I have you back.” </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>❋ ❋ ❋</p><p>
  
</p><p>It was the end of the world.</p><p>The end of all worlds.</p><p>At least for him. Blood was covering his fingers, his hands, his arms. The world had died in his arms tonight, and he had been the one unable to protect it. The world, his world, their world. There was no difference.</p><p>There was no anger. There was no rage like there usually was. There was no hate, not yet. There was just pain, just suffering, just the hole in his heart. There was blood on his hands, but it wasn’t his own. It was still warm, felt so alive, but it was the opposite. It was the epitome of his hurt, the icon of his sorrow.</p><p>The body in his arms was still warm. It was a betrayal, committed against his weak heart. He felt so familiar in his arms, against his chest, but there was nothing of the accustomed intimacy.</p><p>Kai’s eyes were looking at the face of his dead lover, and the world around him began to break. But it didn’t matter, because his world had died in his arms tonight already anyway. Looking up, his eyes met with the murderer. He hated the way they looked so similar. He hated that he could still look at them but not into those of his lover’s. He hated that they looked the same because he knew they weren’t.</p><p>The man was pointing an arrow at him, aiming for his heart. For a second Kai thought about letting it pierce his chest too. But when he looked down again, at the blood-drenched chest of his love, he decided that it was not his time yet. Because now, the hate had begun to fester inside of him. The single look into his in his eyes had been enough to ignite the fire.</p><p>Before the arrow could pierce him through the heart, Kai had vanished. And with him, the body of his dead lover.</p><p>❋</p><p>Their worlds had been at war for years. He didn’t remember a time before the war, he only knew fighting for and against life. But it had been bearable because Sehun had been by at his side. Day and night, they spent together. When it was bright outside, they would roam the cities, searching for food or fight. When it was night, they would lie together. They would kiss and they would fuck, passionately and loud. Their crew hated them for it but they didn’t care. They’d never cared about anyone else. That was until <em> the others </em> appeared.</p><p>They weren’t clones. They were t<em> hem </em>, but not quite. When he stood in front of his other self on the battlefield for the first time, it had been a weird feeling. If he hadn’t seen him step out of the gate himself, he would have thought it was a dream. They’d known that they existed. They knew about the other world, the other universe.</p><p>Parallel universes.</p><p>They existed. They’d learned about how and why in school, but Jongin had long forgotten about it. He just knew that it had something to do with the endlessness of the universe and endless possibilities for atoms to form, but he didn’t really care. The only endlessness that mattered to him was his love for Sehun, but now he was looking at someone that looked just like Sehun. It felt wrong. Next to him stood the real Sehun. The Sehun that he loved, the Sehun that loved him back. The other Sehun… he wasn’t quite the same after all. And there was no sense in really thinking about it after all because he had to kill him.</p><p>There were a million, a billion other worlds like theirs out there. They all existed in an endless number of parallel universes. Some of them were very similar to their world. In one of them, maybe Sehun had blonde hair and Jongin had blue hair instead of green hair. In one of them, maybe they didn’t have to fight for their lives every day. But in all of them - he was sure – they were in love with each other.</p><p>Looking at their other selves for the first time felt weird. Their faces were the same, but their hair, their clothing – everything was different. But it didn’t matter, because only he and Sehun would still be standing and they would be gone. In their world, there could only be one of them.</p><p>War had broken out when the portal between their world had been opened decades ago. Both sides blamed the other for attacking first, so no one really knew who had started the war. Each world was convinced it had been the other and there was no end of fighting in sight. The portal was a simple cave entrance, but they’d long learned that portals could be anything if just infused with the needed power. Since then, several portals had been discovered in their world, leading to other worlds that they yet had to explore. But there wasn’t much time for that with life in an eternal war. Jongin had slipped into one or two before, but he’d never seen anyone else and he’d quickly returned because he was needed on the battlefield.</p><p>It had been quite ironic when he’d learned about the name of the division his and Sehun’s other self served in. In their universe, they were serving in the Y-Division. It had almost made him laugh because he and his Sehun were serving in the X-Division of their army. Recently, their divisions had begun to clash on the battlefield more often than not. So far, their power had been on-par. But one fateful night, everything began to take a turn for the worse.</p><p>When the arrow pierced Sehun’s heart, Jongin felt like he’d watched everything happen in slow-motion. He had been about to teleport towards him to pull him out of the way but then his other self had attacked him, so he had to block him first before teleporting.</p><p>That night, Jongin’s world had shattered into pieces. Only when he’d teleported away from the scene, with Sehun’s corpse in his arms, had he been able to cry. Tears had fallen on his dead lover’s face as the plans for revenge mixed with the grief of having lost everything that meant something to him.</p><p>Sehun from the Y-Division had to die. He had to suffer through the same thing that he’d suffered. And that was losing what was most dear to him. When he looked at his Sehun’s pale face, he knew this was the end of the life that he’d lived until now. With Sehun he’d been Jongin. But for the other Sehun, he would become Kai. And Kai would be the one to put an end to the other Jongin’s life, too. If he couldn’t live his life as Jongin and Sehun anymore, neither could they.</p><p>❋</p><p>His plan had been to kill the other Jongin the moment he saw them. Without Sehun, he spent his days practicing when he didn’t have to fight. He only lived to train, to become stronger. He needed to overcome the balance between them, just like the other Sehun had. If he wanted to kill the other Jongin, he needed to be stronger than him. But unfortunately, the other Jongin had the same power as him too.</p><p>Teleportation.</p><p>He could move everywhere in the blink of an eye, and on top of that, Kai hadn’t seen him in for a long time. To be precise, he had not encountered Jongin from the other world’s Y-Division ever since his Sehun had died. Months had passed, and he was becoming frustrated. One night, he was sure he was going to meet again. He had seen the white hair of the other Baekhyun, the swishing of the other Sehun’s arrows through the air. But his other self was nowhere to be seen. Out of frustration, Kai left the battlefield that night, ignoring the calls of his division members. Wandering through the night, he ended up in an abandoned building. It looked like the inhabitants had left head over heels and Kai couldn’t blame him. The fights in this part of their world had become more and more violent, even for civil society. Every single room he entered had something interesting about it, but what made him stop walking was a room at the end of a long hallway. When he’d stepped inside, his eyes had been drawn to a large object at the other side of the room immediately.</p><p>The mirror looked almost out of place in the room where clothes and other items were strewn around on the floor. The majestic look of it didn’t fit into the chaos. It looked like it belonged to another world, and Kai didn’t have to think about it to know that it was a portal.</p><p>He wondered what the world was like behind the mirror. He wondered if it was a more peaceful world. He wondered if he was fighting in that world, too.</p><p>He wasn’t thinking when he stepped forward, sinking through the mirror. Behind it, darkness greeted him.</p><p>❋</p><p>Finding himself in the attic of an old mansion, Kai looked around. Dust filled the air and he could barely see. He couldn’t tell whether it was light or day, he couldn’t tell where he was. It took him a while to find the hatchway on the floor. There was no ladder attached to it, so he jumped through it, landing safely on his feet in what looked like a staircase. To his side, there were hallways to rooms, but it didn’t look like anyone lived in this building anymore either. Everything was covered in dust, there was no trace of life.</p><p>His eyes were drawn to a wall where he spotted something like a family tree. Stepping in front of it, his eyes widened when he spotted a little name at the bottom of it.</p><p><em> Kim Jongin.</em> </p><p>A name that had been his back then. His eyes flitted to the pictures on the wall, and he realized that it was true. There, on a family picture, he could see him standing with his family, his sister next to him and his parents standing behind them. It had been years since he’d last seen them. They were civilians and he never left the battlefield. He averted his eyes.</p><p>Exploring the house was calming. It had been ages since he’d last been truly alone. It was evident that nobody was living here anymore, so he wasn’t scared about being caught.</p><p>After he’d looked at every single room in the building, he decided to head outside. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when suddenly a car pulled up in the street leading towards the house.</p><p>Kai teleported behind a tree before the driver could see him, watching from there as the car stopped at the side of the road a few meters away. He almost gave himself away when a sound threatened to leave his lips when the man got out of the car, his heart pounding out of his chest.</p><p>It was Sehun.</p><p>Another Sehun.</p><p>Even in this world, he’d found him. Or Sehun had found him. He wasn’t sure.</p><p>Rooted to the spot, Kai watched as the other walked up towards the house. Kai teleported from tree to tree, continuing to watch as the other walked from one side to the other, evidently looking at the building. He tapped something on his phone, then he stared at the building again.</p><p>God, he looked so beautiful. There was none of the harshness that he saw in the other Sehun’s eyes. It was a lot more like the Sehun in his memory, soft and gentle, strong when he needed to be. This Sehun… he reminded him of him. Kai’s heart ached.</p><p>Too soon, this Sehun started walking back to his car already. Kai followed him, making sure he didn’t notice him. When he was back in the car, Kai pitied it. It had felt so good to look at him, to see him move. He didn’t feel any of the agitation he felt towards Sehun of the Y-Division. This Sehun… was something else.</p><p>When the car started, he considered following him. But a noise behind him in the bushes distracted him, his fighting instincts taking over. And when he finally looked back at the street, the car was already making its way down the street and Kai decided to let it go.</p><p>However, when he returned to his world that night, he couldn’t stop thinking about the Sehun he’d seen in the new world. He’d looked so calm, so at peace. His mind kept drifting back to him, the familiar figure running circles in his head. And just like that, Kai decided to head back the next day in the hopes of seeing him again.</p><p>In another world, Sehun of the Y-Division was discussing with his group. What Kai didn’t know was that he had followed him through the portal, watching his every step. He’d seen him observe the other Sehun, and he was already suspecting the worst.</p><p>So when Kai stepped through the portal the following day again in the hopes of seeing the new Sehun again, Sehun from the Y-Division followed him once again.</p><p>But this day, the Sehun of that world didn’t come. And he didn’t come the day after that either. Or the day after that. But Kai was waiting for him. And so was Sehun. But their motives were different, and so were their actions. While Kai daydreamed about the other man, Sehun from the Y-Division wanted to prevent the other to get into contact with him at any cost.</p><p>What they both didn’t know was that there was a big misunderstanding. While Kai was thinking about how to make the new Sehun stay with him to make him his, Sehun from the Y-Division was certain that Kai wanted to kill him. If it was out of pure hatred for him, he wasn’t sure. But he was convinced that the other would kill this world’s Sehun to seek some sort of twisted sort of revenge because he hadn’t been able to kill him just yet. And the Sehun of this world didn’t deserve this… So he tried to give him a hint.</p><p>One day when Kai wasn’t in this world, Sehun decided to give the Sehun of this world a hint that was not too obvious for the other Kai to find but enough for him to make him think.</p><p>The first thing he did was getting rid of any hints of the existence of Kai in this world. If Sehun didn’t see his name in the family tree or his pictures next to it so that he would not make any connection between him and the house but see him as a stranger. So Sehun painted over the name in the family tree and exchanged the image with one where he’d erased the other’s face, making it look like it had been overexposed in the spot where his face was.</p><p>Secondly, by putting the book “The String Theory and Its Implications” as the book that would open the hidden door to the kitchen from the entrance hall, he hoped to take the other a little towards understanding what he was seeing in case Kai decided to show himself to him. Inside, he’d left a letter hidden between the pages trying to explain the existence of parallel universes to him. The book about the String Theory was supposed to help explain it if he needed more background information, but everything that Sehun was hoping for was for the other to be too scared to continue walking through the house and heading right back home. However, he did a major mistake and did not put back into the right spot but instead next to the opening mechanism so that another book was the one to be pulled forward to trigger it.</p><p>He could have probably left more hints but moving in the house with the possibility of Kai showing up any second had been too dangerous. He wanted to save this Sehun, but he needed to be mindful of his own life too.</p><p>Days went by, and both Kai and Sehun from the Y-Division came back to the new world every single day. Kai never noticed him, Sehun thanked god for it, but he wasn’t sure how long he could continue this game.</p><p>But then, on the night of the 31st October, the Sehun of this world returned. And even though he didn’t know it yet, this night would change the life of the three of them forever.</p><p> </p><p>Kai had been in the house long before Sehun of the Y-Division. The other had been involved in a fight where he hadn’t been able to leave to check on him. But when he stepped through the mirror into the attic, Sehun was already in the mansion and Kai was waiting in the attic for him.</p><p>So when it was Sehun from the Y-Division stepping through the mirror, Kai froze to the spot. He’d been about to lure the new Sehun up here to take him to his world with him when the wrong Sehun had shown up.</p><p>Their eyes met in the darkness and it was like they were back to that fateful night on the battlefield.</p><p>“What are you doing here? Not today, why today?” Kai hissed, fear suddenly clouding his brain. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t be here. He couldn’t ruin this for him, his only chance to get Sehun back-</p><p>“You’re not going to kill him. He’s got nothing to do with this.” Sehun said calmly. Just from Kai’s words, he could tell that this world’s Sehun had returned to the mansion. Fuck.</p><p>“Kill him?” Kai laughed quietly, his eyes gleaming in the light Sehun had brought with him. He looked absolutely insane at that moment, green streaky hair hanging in his face and lips splitting into a grotesque, silent laugh. “The only person I want to kill is you.” Kai breathed. “How do you know about this place?”</p><p>“I’ve been following you ever since you came here the first time.” Sehun frowned. “Leave him out of this. Or I’ll force you to.”</p><p>“Force me?” Kai laughed, taking a step towards him. “We’ll see about that. Come and fight me, then. You won’t take him away from me for a second time. I won’t let you.”</p><p>“This is not your Sehun. Don’t you get it? Just like I’m not the same Sehun.” Sehun tried to reason.</p><p>“Shut up. You don’t know anything about him. He’s… a lot more like him than you ever were. He’s… he’s like him. He can be him.” Kai whispered, his eyes boring into Sehun’s. “And I won’t let you take that away from me.”</p><p>When the arrow hit the spot where Kai had stood just a second ago, he’d already teleported.</p><p>There was warm wetness around his right arm, a pulsating sensation in his arm. Brown eyes met his own, close, so close. He could see the surprise in them, not even fear. Just surprise.</p><p>His palm closed around the heart in it. Blood dribbled out of Sehun’s mouth. He hadn’t been able to do anything when Sehun had materialized in front of him, his arm in his chest. He hadn’t even fully registered it when Kai had literally torn his beating heart out of his chest.</p><p>His dead body fell to the ground, now glassy eyes staring into nothingness. Kai looked down at him, his heart still in his palm. Now he had ripped his heart out, just like this Sehun had done it with his when he’d killed his Sehun. In the end, there would always be a balance between their two worlds, he figured.</p><p>There wasn’t much time left. The sound of Y-Division’s dead body hitting the floor must have alerted this world’s Sehun, Kai was sure. He cursed when moving his body made more sounds as he picked him up, but he had to get rid of him. As far as he could see, there wasn’t any blood on the ground, but when he saw his reflection in the mirror, he couldn’t help but smile in triumph. There was blood splattered over his chest and neck, some splatters on his face. But he did not feel disgusting. All he felt at this moment was a triumph. Tossing the dead body through the mirror into his own world, Kai stepped away from the mirror again and disappeared into the shadows to wait.</p><p>It didn’t take long for the hatchway to open. This world’s Sehun poked his head through the opening, his flashlight moving through the attic hectically. Whenever it came into his direction, Kai teleported into an area that was still dark. Like this, covered in blood, he could not face this Sehun. He would think bad things about him, maybe even feel scared of him… he needed a change of plans. But at the same time, he needed the other to finally take notice of him. So when the other snapped pictures of the mirror, Kai teleported into a spot visible from the camera for a second to appear in one picture before he hid in the darkness again.</p><p>And when Sehun left the mansion this time, Kai followed him home.</p><p> </p><p>Before that, however, he’d slipped the ring into Sehun’s jacket when the other took it off and left the bedroom for a while. He’d been the one to place it on the drawer initially. It had been his Sehun’s ring and Kai possessed the matching one. They’d found them in one of the abandoned houses back in their own world and had worn them together ever since. He wanted this Sehun to have it, wanted to see him wear it. So when he’d realized that he hadn’t taken it, he had to make sure he would put it on at home.</p><p>Following him home hadn’t been too difficult. Hiding in his flat, however, had been a little more complicated. Yet, Kai had been able to watch him and his roommate find the picture of him. Sehun’s excitement had just strengthened his belief that this was his Sehun, that this Sehun was just like his Sehun.</p><p>The other spotting him in the reflection of his window had been an accident though. He hadn’t intended for that to happen, so he teleported into the bathroom quickly, watching through the ajar door how this Sehun looked freaked out for a moment but then relaxed quickly. Maybe having gotten caught wasn’t so bad after all… He was getting used to him, this was an advantage.</p><p>Later when the other had gone to bed in the early morning, Kai watched him sleep.</p><p>The next day, Kai tried to watch him as much as possible. He thought it was cute how he thought that what he’d photographed was the ghost of the dead son of the family from the mansion. In some ways, Sehun wasn’t even that wrong. That person was him, in this universe at least. But he certainly wasn’t the one that Sehun had taken a picture of in the attic.</p><p>When Sehun found the ring in his pocket and even slid it on, excitement filled Kai’s chest. The ring only made him look more like the Sehun that he loved and he felt the itch to reveal himself to him stronger than ever before. That was why he showed himself to him once again in the bathroom, holding up his hand to show him his ring. The other seemed surprised by it, but not scared to death, at least from what Kai could tell in the short amount of time before he had to teleport away again.</p><p>When he realized that Sehun wanted to head back to the mansion the following day, he smiled. It was his chance to finally reveal himself to him and take him to his world so they could be together forever. Just thinking about it made him feel giddy, all the sorrow he’d felt for the past months having vanished.</p><p> </p><p>After Sehun had parked at the mansion, it took excruciatingly long until Sehun was back in the building and on the first floor. He couldn’t stop him from putting the ring back, but Kai could make sure that he would visit the attic again. Making some noise, trying to recreate those from the first night, he then quickly covered up the mirror and then waited in the shadows.</p><p>And just like he’d expected, not much later Sehun poked his head through the hatchway and climbed up the ladder. He looked quite surprised when he realized the mirror had been covered up, but just like he’d hoped, Sehun pulled the fabric away.</p><p>It was then when their eyes met through the reflection, and Kai knew that this was his soulmate. This Sehun was just like his Sehun. They might be from different worlds, but he could feel it in his heart, in his soul. He would never let go of him again, he was sure of that, too.</p><p>When he turned around to look at Kai, realization hitting him that it was not a mere reflection, Kai had already taken a step towards him. Sehun’s lips were parted like he was about to say something. They looked so beautiful, small but plump. Kissable.</p><p>Reaching out, Kai cupped his face gently, looking into his eyes. They were innocent, oh so innocent.</p><p>
  <em> “Finally, I have you back.”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>When the words left his lips, he leaned in to close the distance between them. Their lips met in a tentative kiss. At first, Sehun didn’t kiss him back, but when Kai wrapped his arms around him, he began moving his lips against his, too.</p><p>He’d missed kissing those lips. Tears formed in his eyes. A single tear rolled down his cheek when they parted again. It was the first tear that he had spilled since his Sehun’s death.</p><p>He would never let him go again. He would kill everyone that tried to harm him, he would make sure of that.</p><p>There was confusion in the other man’s eyes and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but Kai just reached out and placed a finger over his lips, shushing him. There was time to talk later. He was going to make him understand. But that needed time. Right now, he just wanted to appreciate having him here, right here with him. His scent, his touch, his sounds.</p><p><em> “I was waiting for you, Sehun.” </em> He breathed, gently caressing his cheek. <em> “I was waiting for you for so long. Now that you’re here, everything is okay again. Now that you’re here, I’m whole again. My world is whole again. Because it is our world again now.” </em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well, this was a ride. I hope the plottwist came as a surprise and that everything was reasonable and made sense to you. I would love to hear your thoughts on the fic, so pls consider leaving a comment! Kudos are also appreciated! Thank you so much for reading and Happy Halloween! ♥️</p><p>PS. I know you all probably hate me for leaving this open ended, but I personally find that it adds just the right touch to the story. What do you guys think?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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